Casual terms of address for women?

@greenteakitten said in #37:
> I actually prefer it over sis, darling, babygirl, honey, etc. all of which I tend to associate more with flirting
Really, You associate "sis" with flirting?
I mean that's a word I only call my sister or, in a very few cases, female friends that I have a strong bond with, in a none romantic way.
Never have I used that for flirting :-D

Now you can use the word friend to address almost anyone. It's polite, it feels warm and welcoming.
Even if they are not your friend, it still give them the impression, that you are friendly.
Although in some cases, especially when travelling abroad, most of the people calling me friend, are street vendors trying to sell me something.

Sometimes it's not about the words, but more about how, and in which tone/manner the words are expressed.
Also who speaks them. Take age and culture into consideration, before judging people's motives.

#2:
> 'dude' is gender-neutral

You’re half right. In fact dude, like guy, *can* be neutral, but not when applied to a specific person. Only when used generally.

For instance, a girl can greet a group of friends by saying, “Hey, you guys”; or I can exclaim, “Dude!” at no one in particular. In neither case is anyone’s gender actually being invoked; these are just turns of phrase.

However, if you point to someone and say “That guy,” or “That’s a dude,” then on the contrary, precisely what you’ve done is cast the entity in question as masculine. (If only by convention.)

Hope that clears things up for you. :-)

I’m reminded of when someone said, “You shouldn’t capitalize google.” I told him you certainly should if it’s the company’s name, just not if it’s a verb — e.g., “I know someone who works for Google”; “Why don’t you just google it?”

You see, there are exceptions to every rule. Language, like so many other things in life (politics, religion, science), is complex. So generalizing is always a mistake. I mean often a mistake. ^_^

Sure, it’s probably safe enough to derive a particular case from a general one; however, no one can reliably do the inverse, and generalize from the particular. Yet some of the more clueless (or else shameless) among us often try to, anyway. (All too often, if you ask me.) -_-

A little less certainty, and a little more humility, could only do us all some good. :-) Just because you’re right in one instance doesn’t mean you’re always right; likewise, if you got one detail wrong, that doesn’t invalidate everything you’ve ever said. (Those who rely on ad hominem attacks should take note: “He was wrong about that, ‘therefore’ he must be wrong about everything” is a shortcut taken by lazy morons and manipulative psychopaths, not serious thinkers or honest debaters.)

So anyway, going forward I suggest saying dude “can be” gender neutral, rather than that it “is.” This way of talking will get you into less trouble.

rant.close()

@NaturalBornTraveller said in #41:
> Really, You associate "sis" with flirting?
Context is important - in that case sis was accompanied with a lot of other...things. I won’t mind it if someone very close to me says it but personally I dislike it when strangers call me that. It’s preference, I know most women don’t mind :)
> I mean that's a word I only call my sister or, in a very few cases, female friends that I have a strong bond with, in a none romantic way.
> Never have I used that for flirting :-D
> Now you can use the word friend to address almost anyone. It's polite, it feels warm and welcoming.
> Even if they are not your friend, it still give them the impression, that you are friendly.
I agree!
> Although in some cases, especially when travelling abroad, most of the people calling me friend, are street vendors trying to sell me something.
Lol I too tend to a bit more apprehensive about it in public!
> Sometimes it's not about the words, but more about how, and in which tone/manner the words are expressed.
> Also who speaks them. Take age and culture into consideration, before judging people's motives.
If this is addressed to me I will say that I have never judged anyone for calling me things like babygirl- I don’t prefer it but I’m not going to rail on people for it. Still I feel like there should still be some sort of “norm” so to speak - I would not want to be called a mad witch by @SimonBirch all day! :D

I like how someone is immediately downvoted for saying dude is gender-neutral but then someone else comes in saying it makes them feel included.

Around where I live, everyone is a dude or bro. It's not a gendered term. It's a term of endearment lol.

i call them by their names but sometimes if i forget their name,i try to avoid conversation

To the boys out there, just go to a boys school, its much simpler, no offence.

@ForumPoster4242 said in #1:
> While speaking to my peers that are men, I often use casual terms of address such as 'man', 'brother', 'bruv' and the like, but what about when addressing women? I have observed that women (in my locality) that are close friends with each other mostly call each other 'bro' but it sounds kinda odd so I want to know about terms of address that are specific to women.
Try to call her names that remind of beautiful places. For example the beach is a beautiful place, try calling it "beach"
@verylate said in #3:
> I call almost everybody "darling". It's because I can't remember their names.
The solution is to ask him "What's your name?" He answers you "some-name" You say "Yes, of course, I was going to ask what your last name is!"